The rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen is reflected in the frequent jabs that Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff take at one another.
Despite their frequently savage rivalry, Christian Horner and Toto Wolff demonstrated their ability to get along at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
It makes sense that Red Bull and Mercedes would be bitter rivals since they have been the two winning teams in Formula 1 for the past ten years. Max Verstappen is the current team leader, after Lewis Hamilton held the position for many years when his team was winning.
When the two racers’ thrilling 2021 title fight was at its peak, their rivalry had reached a boiling point. And the dynamic between their respective bosses reflects that relationship as well.
When defending their teams, Horner and Wolff do so with great fervor. And they both never hesitate to voice their opinions about each other, which frequently results in some highly publicized arguments between them.
Nevertheless, despite all of their animosity, they still have mutual respect. As the two longest-serving team principals on the grid following the retirement of AlphaTauri chief Franz Tost, Horner and Wolff are more familiar than most with the demands made of them by paddock politics.
And last weekend at the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, they showed off just how well they get along. After being shared on social media by the official Red Bull Racing account, a picture of the two posing for the camera and grinning and laughing went viral.
Additionally, Damon Hill has stated unequivocally that the smiles weren’t staged for the cameras. The 1996 world champion said on the F1 Nation podcast that he was there when Horner and Wolff were having a conversation outside of Red Bull hospitality, along with a few other well-known people.
“There is Jos [Verstappen, Max’s father] and Christian and Toto and Geri [Horner, Christian’s wide] and they’re all outside Red Bull and they’re having a good old laugh about things,” Hill said, characterizing it as a “lovely moment.”
“Respect lies beneath everything, including everything we hear about the rivalry and the needle. To see that instead of it being whipped up into this kind of bitterness just for the story’s sake is so encouraging. These individuals are fighters and athletes at their core.”
“There has to be a respect, but sport isn’t sport without rivalry,” Horner said in a recent interview regarding his relationship with Wolff. Though it’s obvious that we haven’t seen much of him lately, I have no doubt that he is planning. He undoubtedly has a project that they are working on. They make an amazing team. They have a large squad. Their drivers are excellent. They’ll be trying to retaliate.
